'Celebrating Stratton Leopold' honors Savannah's own Hollywood legend and hometown hero

Why does 80-year-old ice cream icon and Hollywood producer Stratton Leopold keep slinging sundaes and making movies?

“Because I’m not that great a golfer,” he quipped.

On the evening of Saturday, April 20, the gregarious octogenarian will be honored at the Historic Savannah Theatre in an event billed “Celebrating Stratton Leopold.” A fundraiser for local intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) advocacy and education organization EmployAbility, the night’s programming will include celebrity guests, an Inside the Actor’s Studio-style sit down hosted by Michael Owens of the Tourism Leadership Council, and a video montage highlighting the man’s legacy in film.

'The Vice President of Paramount Studios just scooped our ice cream'

In many ways, the seeds for the event were planted years ago, when EmployAbility President and CEO Brendan Ferrara and his wife Carey, who, at the time, was working for the Department of Economic Development, were strolling down Broughton Street. Part of Carey Ferrara’s job was to connect local businesses to government funding, to help them grow, and they stopped into what was then the newly re-opened Leopold’s.

“We thought it was weird and insane that the vice president of Paramount Studios just scooped our ice cream,” Brendan Ferrara laughed.

The trio quickly became friends, with Carey Ferrara eventually even going to work for Leopold as his director of marketing & communications. And in 2012, in conjunction with Savannah Technical College’s renovation of the original 1919 Leopold’s Ice Cream sign, Brendan Ferrara helped to tangentially honor Leopold’s achievements in the ice cream business.

But this event, says Brendan Ferrara, is different, in that it’s all about the man’s life in film, and the positive impact that he’s made in the areas of inclusion and diversity.

“No one has ever celebrated Stratton in that way,” he said. “Here’s an opportunity for us to focus on the Hollywood side of [his life], and discuss the integration of his work force.”

Leopold won’t be alone on the stage, of course, and several notable actors will joining the distinguished Savannahian to share stories about not only him, but their own lives in Hollywood. Among those famous friends is someone that the Ferrara’s were first introduced to back at that Savannah Tech event over a decade ago as simply “Jamie,” but who ended up being an A-list star.

“[Stratton] said, ‘Hey guys, I’m gonna have to do a lot of engaging with people during the event, obviously, since it’s honoring me, but my friend Jamie is coming. Would you mind entertaining Jamie?’” Brendan Ferrara recalled. “And Terry and I are like, ‘Sure, whatever, okay.’ But when he shows up, it’s James Cromwell.”

“He was the nicest, sweetest man,” he said of the 6-foot-6-inch tall star of such films as "Babe" and "Star Trek: First Contact," and the TV show "Succession." “And every stupid, doe-eyed Hollywood question I had, he happily answered. He was just a sweetheart.”

Stratton Leopold’s ‘side gig’

One of Cromwell’s recent roles was as Dr. Arthur Arden on season two of "American Horror Story," for which he won an Emmy. Alongside the decorated actor will be another AHS veteran, Jamie Brewer, as well as Zack Gottsagen, star of the acclaimed movie "Peanut Butter Falcon," which filmed primarily in Savannah. Gottsagen is also noteworthy in that he was the first ever person with Down Syndrome to be a presenter at the Academy Awards

“What we’re really excited about is it gives us now an opportunity to talk about Stratton’s…‘side gig’ working Hollywood,” Brendan Ferrara joked, before noting more seriously, “and how Hollywood is no longer hiring Dustin Hoffman to portray somebody with autism; they’re finding somebody with autism to play the role.”

Part of the thrust of the event is, of course, that it’s a fundraiser for EmployAbility, to help them continue to be able to operate as “the Savanah Tech for the IDD, or intellectual and developmental disabilities, community,” as Ferrara put it.

But for the organizers, and Leopold himself, it’s about more than that: It’s also about continuing to erase the artificial dividing line that exists between the IDD and neuro-typical communities. Leopold’s, for example, employs 10% or more of their staff at any given time with staff members that have come through EmployAbility’s programs, and time and again they’ve seen the benefits of those partnerships, both for the employee and the business itself.

“The success stories are phenomenal,” Leopold related. “One of our team members, whose been with us for six years, he’s autistic. When he came with us, he would stay in the back, wash dishes, not look at you, or perhaps a little furtive glance. Not communicate whatsoever.

“The rest of the team embraced him,” he went on to say. “Now he’s out front, greeting people, suggesting flavors, having fun. He’s now living on his own. He wants to start a business. It’s just phenomenal to see these changes.”

“Everybody has seen that line at Leopold’s,” Ferrara added. “Stratton dedicating 10% of his work force to people with disabilities has not impacted his bottom line in a negative way at all. In fact, I’d argue that it’s had a significant positive impact.”

‘You take care of people’

Ultimately, “Celebrating Stratton Leopold” will be just that: Honoring a man whose made himself globally recognizable thanks to his films, and locally beloved thanks to his ice cream. But just because he’s already famous doesn’t mean he plans on slowing down anytime soon.

“It’s something my dad taught me,” Leopold recalled. “My dad always said, ‘You take care of people.’ And we always did, starting way back then.”

He went on, “I can’t imagine not doing this. I can’t imagine kicking my feet up. I’d go crazy. I wouldn’t know what to do.”

If You Go >>

What: Celebrating Stratton Leopold

When: 7 p.m., April 20

Where: Historic Savannah Theatre, 222 Bull St.

Tickets: $75, employabilityga.org/celebrating-stratton

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: EmployAbility hosts Stratton Leopold celebration and fundraiser